UCI professors Bryan Reynolds and Robert Cohen talk about Transversal Theater, The Sopranos and their new play, Blue Shade

In Reynolds' view, people act transversally when they are "tolerant of the different, open to the thoughts and feelings of others." When people see a play about the lives of people of whom they have little understanding, as they hopefully start to empathize, they move outside of the emotional, conceptual and physical territorial walls that they have set up for themselves.

Tough going, but Reynolds wouldn't have it any other way.

"To become [full human beings]," he says, "we have to make ourselves vulnerable."